Car Seat Headrest announce new rock opera ‘The Scholars’
Car Seat Headrest has announced their first album in five years, The Scholars, which will be released on May 2nd via Matador Records.
Having released their experimental album Making a Door Less Open in 2020, the band, fronted by Will Toledo, have been quiet apart from two EPs. Thankfully, they have now returned with their first taste of new music since the release of the previous record, beginning with the 11-minute lead single ‘Gethsemane’.
A warping mini-epic, the track immediately throws the listener into a world of spiritual discovery, and introduces us to some of the themes that are to be explored on the new record, which has been billed as a rock opera.
Set on the campus of the fictional Parnassus University, the album follows the story of the students and staff who experience their own journeys of life, death and rebirth. Speaking on ‘Gethsemane’, Toledo shared a brief excerpt on the themes portrayed in the song’s lengthy runtime.
It reads: “Rosa studies at the medical school of Parnassus University. After an experience bringing a medically deceased patient back to life, she begins to regain powers suppressed since childhood, of healing others by absorbing their pain.”
“Each night, instead of dreams, she encounters the raw pain and stories of the souls she touches throughout the day. Reality blurs, and she finds herself taken deep into secret facilities buried beneath the medical school, where ancient beings that covertly reign over the college bring forth their dark plans,” it adds.
The expansive album has been self-produced by Toledo, a common occurrence since the project’s earliest origins as a solo venture released solely via Bandcamp, but it also sees him attempt to record in mostly analogue for the first time.
The band have also announced a US tour for 2025, with dates in nine cities between May and November this year.
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